A Contract With Mr Handsome: One Touch Is All It Took

KIMBERLY “Doctor please you have to help us. Don't cancel the surgery date. I promise you, I’ll pay soon. My boyfriend promised to give me the money…” I trailed off when I heard the sound of the call end. I sighed and tiredly got up from my old bed with dark circles under my eyes due to lack of sleep. Today was the fifth day since Dave broke up with me through a text message, after eight years of our relationship. Eight years of enduring his constant mood swings and being an understanding girlfriend. Eight years of being in a relationship with him even though he vehemently refused to make our relationship known to the public and still claimed our relationship was exclusive. Eight years of telling myself that everything was fine between us even though no member of his family knew about our relationship. Why? Because my family had no social status and to crown it all up I had a drug addict as a brother. Eight years of envisioning a perfect life with him after he gets his mom's blessing and consent for us to get married. But after eight solid years of enduring all these and loving him with everything I had, all I got was a breakup text message. He didn’t even at least show me respect by breaking up with me whenever we met. Worst of all I had been calling him since that day and he never picked up my calls nor did he return my text messages. And yet here I was still hoping he would pay for my mom’s as he promised. “Kim!!! Baby you'd be late for work,” My mom called out from the living room. “I'm already dressed up and I’ll be out in a sec,” I answered sweetly and sighed afterward. That was a lie. I hadn't even brushed my teeth yet. The worst part of these past five days was pretending that I was fine when I wasn't at all. I spent most of my days wondering the reason why Dave chose to break up with me. I couldn’t think of anything I had done wrong. I was a faithful and submissive girlfriend. Walking into the bathroom to brush my teeth and bath, I decided to go to his family and openly plead with him not to give up on our relationship. At least not when he promised to pay for my mom’s surgery. Did I forget to mention that my mom is cripple? Yeah, she was. She got involved in an accident last year and since then the responsibility of fending for my mom and brother fell on me. And our doctor said if she didn't get surgery before the end of the week she would remain a cripple forever. Now he called to tell me that they would give the appointed day for my mom’s surgery to another patient since I had not yet paid. “Kim!!!” My mom yelled my name again and I almost tripped as I walked out of the bathroom because I was startled. “I’m already coming out Mom!!!” I answered and hurried to dress up. I had been working at a convenience store for three years now and my boss Miss Judith had been very kind to me because she was aware of my family's situation. I hurriedly put on my pants and our store's customized t-shirt. Then I proceeded to blow dry my hair and comb it, after which I put on my face cap which of course had our store's name branded on it. Picking up a dress and fancy footwear, I stuffed it into my backpack because I had made up my mind to go to Dave’s family residence after work. “Everything is going to be fine. Dave isn’t going to leave you now that you need him most,” I assured myself as I took a final look at the mirror before dashing out of my room, after putting on my backpack and Converse. Well, the old rickety house we lived in wasn’t that bad. Except for the fact that the ceiling was always leaking whenever it rained and the paint on the wall was peeling off, our house was good to go. We lived on the last floor of our rented house building. “Good morning Mom,” I said to her as I plastered a fake smile on my face when I got to the living room, and as expected she was seated in her wheelchair. I gave her a quick peck on her cheeks making her smile. But the smile on her face froze when she looked at my face. “Dark circles? Since when did you start having dark circles under your eyes? I remember you’re always tired whenever you get back from work and that’s what makes you sleep like a log of wood till the next morning. So what’s with the dark circle?” She asked me worriedly. I let out a forced laugh, “It’s a new trend of makeup we youngsters put on these days,” I lied and it hurt me. I hated lying to my Mom. “Oh, I see. You still look pretty anyway,” She beamed. “What's for breakfast?” I asked her just for formalities, not like I was hungry. This ordeal I had with Dave made me lose my appetite. “Do you still have to ask? All we have is cup noodles and…” She wanted to playfully continue but I cut her mid-sentence knowing what she was going to say next. “Jam and bread,” I completed and we both laughed. Even though it was difficult for us to have three squares, we never let our situation weigh us down. We had hoped that someday things would become better for us. “I’ll just quickly fix your breakfast before heading out,” I informed her and wanted to go into our kitchen but she stopped me. “Are you kidding me?” She gave me a knowing look before she continued speaking again. “I can handle myself, baby. Being in a wheelchair doesn’t mean I can’t do all these little things for myself. You should know I’m used to it already. So go, you're running late for work,” She encouraged me with a warm smile on her face. It was moments like this that I pitied my mom. I nodded in agreement and kissed her forehead lovingly before rushing out of our apartment. “Bye, Mom!! Wait, where is Drayton I haven’t seen him this morning,” I called out when I was outside the door. Drayton, my brother, was now a senior in high school and I hoped that would change him and make him stop taking hard drugs. “Take care of yourself, baby. Drayton left for school a while ago,” I heard her answer and with that, I headed out to work. ☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️ When I got to the bus stop, I saw that the bus heading to my destination was already going. I had to keep running and shouting for the bus to wait. Luckily it stopped and I entered. A few minutes later I got down from the bus and walked to my workplace. It was easier for me because Miss Judith’s store was directly opposite the bus stop. Of course, I got scolded by her when I got into the store, but I didn’t get angry because I knew I was wrong for coming late. The rest of my day passed as I spent the day sharing out fliers of our convenience store to passersby, whom eighty percent of them ignored me even though I tried my best to make them collect it. So much for advertisement. Finally, it was my closing time. It was time for me to face Dave. It was time for me to finally know the fate of our relationship and to also know If he was really to back out on his promise of paying for my mom’s surgery. So I decided that even though he wouldn’t want our relationship anymore, I’d beg him to still help me pay for my mom's surgery even though it meant me paying him back in installments. I headed into the changing room and changed from my work uniform to the dress and footwear I carried from home. Before stuffing my uniform into my backpack. I then headed out of the store after bidding my workers and Miss Judith goodnight. It was already dark, so I boarded a taxi with the last cash I had with the hope that Dave would at least drive me back home. ☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️ Ten minutes later, the taxi stopped in front of Dave’s family house. Ever since we started dating during high school senior year, he never agreed to bring me to his family residence. We would only stop outside, then he’d go in and carry whatever he wanted to carry and come back to meet me outside. Today was gonna be the first day I’ll enter the house. I paid the taxi driver and walked to the front of the gigantic gate. Oh, did I forget to mention that Dave’s family were stinkingly rich? Yeah, they were. I rang the doorbell and the security man immediately opened the gate. “Good day, Sir. I’m Kimberly Young and I’m here to see Dave,” I said sweetly and he looked at me from head to toe which made me feel uncomfortable. “You’re here for the special dinner?” The security man asked me. What special dinner? “Yeah I am,” I lied and forced a smile. I didn’t know of any dinner taking place but I used it as an opportunity to get into the house. “Alright then. Come in. They are in the garden,” He said, pointing to the area where I could see lights and people seated. “Thanks,” I said and began walking to the garden. While walking to the garden I marveled at the luxurious nature of everything within the premises of the house. Seems like they were more wealthy than I thought. It wasn't just one building that was on the premises, there were many. It looked like an estate. When I got closer to the garden I could see people seated at the dining table and conversing. I recognized the face of Dave’s mom making me realize it was a family dinner. Not like I had met her in reality before, Dave only showed me her picture once. I wanted to turn around and leave, but I couldn’t because I felt this might be my only chance to talk to him. So I kept on walking till I reached the garden and when I did, all eyes were on me. I didn’t know why, but based on the way they were all looking at me, it looked as though they were expecting me. My eyes searched for Dave and it widened when I caught sight of the girl Dave told me was his cousin kissing him in front of all his family members. My heart broke into a million pieces. I was angry at him and also angry at myself for not being able to notice it all this while. I should have known he was lying because what kind of cousin always calls and texts you every hour of the day? What broke me more was that he had a smile on his face as though it didn’t matter even though I saw them like this. “Hey, Sugar. You came late, why?” I heard a deep and sexy voice ask but my eyes were still fixated on Dave and his so-called cousin. Before I could comprehend or get a better look at the person who spoke, the person stepped in front of me and gave a quick peck on my lips. I froze when I felt the person's lips on mine and raised my head to look at who had the nerve to do this in front of Dave’s family, but not before seeing Dave’s eyes widen. The look on his face was priceless. I didn’t even know when this person walked toward me because I was so busy staring daggers at Dave and his new girl or should I say, old girl. When I finally looked at the person who pecked me and called me Sugar, my breath hitched.